Matt Gurney: Ontario teachers target kids now, courts later

Ontario teachers target kids now, courts later

On Tuesday, the minority Ontario Liberals and Progressive Conservatives joined together to pass extraordinary legislation. The Liberals have been locked in a contentious battle with several of the province’s powerful teachers unions. This legislation is the latest development in that campaign. It will not be the last.

The bill imposes a new employment contract on those teachers unions that had not yet accepted the government’s terms willingly. Briefly, those terms are a two-year wage freeze, cutting sick days from 20 to 10 and the elimination of so-called sick-day banking, which allowed teachers in some jurisdictions to save up their unused sick days and then retire early by cashing them in all at once. The Liberals insist these reforms are necessary to rein in education spending without impacting students, and correctly note that the province needs to get its fiscal house in order, fast.

Among the unions that didn’t accept the province’s terms willingly, and are therefore impacted by this legislation, are two of the province’s largest – the Ontario Secondary School Teacher’s Federation (OSSTF) and the Elementary Teacher’s Federation of Ontario (ETFO). They have repeatedly said that they intend to fight the provincial legislation in the courts, as it infringes on their right to collective bargaining. The government counters that it gave them a chance to bargain, and the unions either walked away or failed to reach an agreement, forcing it to act in the province’s best interests. The unions then respond that the government was never serious about negotiations.

A lot of the back-and-forth arguments are purely about optics. But there is certainly confusion on the point. Legal experts seem split on how the courts — including the Supreme Court, where the unions say they’ll fight if necessary — would rule in such a case.

In the meantime, OSSTF and ETFO have both announced that they are taking limited job actions. The legislation passed Tuesday forbids them from striking. But teachers can still pull out of extracurricular activities, and the unions have said they intend to begin doing exactly that. OSSTF, for example, has said that its teachers will not participate in extracurricular activities on Wednesday. ETFO has announced that, going forward, its teachers will observe “McGuinty Mondays”, where its teachers will likewise withdraw from extracurricular activities.

It’s an interesting move. It will certainly get the attention of the students and parents, but it’s pretty mild stuff. One day a week of action still means four days a week of business as usual. One could speculate that perhaps the unions are just trying to send McGuinty a message to see if it helps their cause any. But that’s unlikely. The bill is passed. It will become law as soon as it receives royal assent from the Lieutenant Governor, and that’s expected in short order. The unions have little to gain by sending additional messages McGuinty’s way. He’s clearly not listening.

No, it’s more likely that this is designed to get the attention of students and parents, while still being careful not to provoke too strong a backlash. If the unions do want to go to the courts, that will take time. During that period, the unions will walk a tricky path. They must keep their plight in the news and top-of-mind all without angering parents, which would risk losing whatever public support they may have.

One day a week will certainly be less provocative than an outright stoppage of all extracurricular activities. But it’s still hard to see how this will ultimately work to the union’s benefit. What the government has asked of them is reasonable — so much so that several of their fellow unions willingly signed on. While the unions may have a fair point — and even legal grounds — to object to how the government went about imposing this contract, to parents struggling in tough economic times, arguments about collective bargaining rights will likely fall on deaf ears.

Whether they like to admit it or not, OSSTF and ETFO members will be hurting kids to prove a point during a labour dispute. For many families, the details of the dispute and the relative restraint being shown by the unions will matter little. They’ll just know that their kids are being made to suffer because some teachers couldn’t bring themselves to accept the same deal as a bunch of other teachers did.

The unions may well win in the courts. They should hope so. Because until then, they’ll be losing with the public.